Drake Burroughs (Pre-Zero Hour)
As a young man he attended Metropolis University. One day, while studying at the University's research center, Drake was caught in a laboratory explosion that completely destroyed his body. For reasons unknown, his consciousness survived, and the atoms of his body reconstituted themselves as pure antimatter. A scientist named Professor Vultan created a specially designed suit to contain Drake's energy form. The suit enabled Drake the ability to function in a relatively normal existence, and it also provided him the ability to channel a wide variety of new energy-based powers through the suit. Calling himself ERG-1, Drake applied for membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes. Unfortunately, the Legion maintained a policy which forbade inclusion of members whose powers duplicated those of other members. ERG-1's power-set included abilities shared by others such as Superboy, Colossal Boy, and Shrinking Violet. As such, his application for membership was rejected. Soon afterwards he seemingly sacrificed himself to save the Legion from a robot on Manna-5 and the Legion assumed he was dead because his energy suit was empty. Wildfire eventually reconstituted himself and was admitted into the Legion after uncovering the secret of the Molecule Master. Most of Wildfire's powers are enabled and limited by the specific constainment suit that he may be using at any given time. For unspecified reasons, his original suit (built by Professor Vultan) is noticeably superior to the later attempts by Brainiac 5, which vary slightly among them both in appearance and in capabilities. It seems that none of the later suits have the range of powers Wildfire had at first, such as size alteration, super senses and transmutation of chemical elements. Wildfire had a crush on Dawnstar which was reciprocated but due to his condition of being a sack of energy he could not consummate the relationship. He briefly experimented with a hard energy body that Quislet taught him how to create but Dawnstar was not receptive to the change. | Powers = * : A being of pure anti-matter energy, Wildfire possessed a variety of superhuman abilities. Wildfire no longer has a physical body, however his essence must be contained within a specially designed suit. ** : Wildfire possessed a strength level many times greater than that of the average human. ** : Wildfire could produce concentrated blasts of pure energy for offensive attack. ** : As such, he could also absorb large amounts of energy, without any undue stress to his form. ** : Wildfire could travel at faster than light speeds without the aid of external applications. ** : Although Wildfire's containment suit can be destroyed, his energy body is virtually invulnerable and can only be dispersed under the most extreme of conditions. ** : Like his teammate, Superboy, Wildfire possessed the ability to see through varying layers of solid objects. ** : Another application of Wildfire's energy projection, was the ability to generate simple hard-light constructs. The properties of this ability are similar to that produced by a Green Lantern Ring, but Wildfire can only create simple geometric constructs. ** : Wildfire could expand his mass and volume several times greater than normal, allowing him to achieve heights similar to that of Colossal Boy. In contrast, he could compact the density of his molecular structure to assume a miniaturized form, similar to that of teammate Shrinking Violet. | Abilities = * | Strength = | Weaknesses = * : Drake can't keep his body solid without the use of a containment suit. | Equipment = * Containment Suit | Transportation = * Legion Flight Ring | Notes = | Trivia = * ERG-1 stands for Energy Reaction Generator 1. * Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 4 40 mentions Wildfire's brother Squire Burroughs. Squire may be Drake's brother via adoption. Secrets of the The Legion Vol 1 3 mentions that Drake was orphaned as a child and that the people he knows as his parents are his parents via adoption. | Wikipedia = Wildfire (comics) | Links = * Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #25 * Wildfire appearances list * Wildfire biography page at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe }}